Progress chart



R. G. ARECH Pao'eass eww Filed nec. 1o, 192s Jiri-o Nays JA w.

N EQE l.: -22

' adapted to be used more particularly inr of production or completionto keep the by hand as the work upon the articles of Patented Oct. 27,1925.

yUmTEDSTATEs iti . l RAYMOND G. RECH, or sYRAcUsnNEW YORK.

.- .rRoGRRss CHART.

4Application vfiled December 10, 192,3. Serial No. 679,871.

To all whom it' may concern:

y Be it known that I, RAYMOND G. RECH, a citizen of the United States'of America, of

Syracuse, in the county of Onondaga, in the State of New York, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Progress Charts, of which thefollowing, taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, is' afull, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to a progress chart large ,manufacturingestablishments as a means for informing those interested as to the ypreparation, progress and completion of the manufacture of variousarticles entering into a vparticular machine although it is Vequallyapplicable for use in any other relation where it is desired to keep arecord of the progressive stages of development of any particular lineof work.A l

In the extensive manufacture of machines of a certain type, eachinvolving the use of a considerable number of parts, it is customary tocarry in stock a sufficient quantity of raw materials for a given numberof machines depending upon the capacity of' the plant and economicworking conditions, n

the stock on handbeing distributed to various departments for suchoperations and processes rof finishing as may be necessary ot enablethem to be easily and quickly i'nstalled in their, respective places inthe assembling or finishing department.l

It is well known that some of the yparts require a greater number ofoperations sometimes in different *departmentsV than other parts, andvin, order that the work of each department may progress without delayor loss of time in each department, it is highly important that the rawmaterials and unfinished work be kept up in proper ratio assembly roomat full working capacity.

These duties usually devolve upon what 1s commonly known as theproduction manager and his assistants, and the main object ofA tivelyadjustable endwise oneover the 'other and each strip bearing graduatedindicia cooperating with one end of a next-superposed strip whereby theproduction manager or his assistant y'may at any time, adjust any one orthe other of the Ystrips of each section to give a reading which willindicate'the various stages of lprogress of manufacture of articlesunder` the title of that particular section from the stock on hand oronorder, to the finished article so that the production manager or anyother personA interested, may quickly determine byian examination of thechart, the exact progre'ssmade inthe completion or inshingoffthe'articles under any one or the lother ofthetitles and alsogivesexact information'as to the stock on hand or on order, and 'if onorder, the quantity due for ra given total productionl of machines, thenumber vunder process of y manufacture, and the number actually finishedkfrom which maybe determined the amount ef stock necessary to order forya continuation of the process or the necessity of urging the delivery ofthe raw materials immediately the rate of manufacture of any particulararticle through the various stages of completion by simplyV 'comparingthe lengths Vof the exposed portions of the strips of any onesectionxand -in like manner, may determine the rate of manufacture ofthe different articles in variousstages of production by comparing thelengths of the exposed portions of the strips of any one 'section withthose of'theother sections.

A further object is to provide suitable guides for the strips of eachsection whereby said strips maybe readily adjusted endwise that`particular section progresses.V

Other objects and uses relating to specific parts of the device will be`brought out in the following description.

In the drawinofsg-A Figure 1 is a fi'ont elevation of aprogress chartshowing, this instance, three sections partly breken away.

Figure 2 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view, partly broken awaytaken on line 2 2, Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged transverse vertical sectional View taken on line3 3, Figure 1.

The chart shown is designed to show the progressive development of aplurality of, in this instance three, articles of manufacture andtherefore, comprises a series of three parallel guides or sections 1 ofsubstantially equal length arranged edgewise one upon the other andformed intermediate their ends with return bends 1 so that the oppositeends of the guides extend in the same direction and terminate insubstantially the same transverse plane each section being designated bya different title such as M 1001 base, M 1002 Lf. front leg, M 1003 Rt.front leg, printed or otherwise impressed upon suitable cards 2 whichare removably inserted in guide plates 3 the latter being secured to thefront faces of the sections 1 near the return bend 1 with their innerends in vertical alinement to form a fixed index lt If desired, theseguide plates 3 may be rigidly united along their adjacent edges to eachother and rigidly secured by brazing or otherwise, to the sections 1 toassist in supporting said sections.

The outer ends of the plates 3- may be hinged at 5 to any suitablesupport 6 to permit the entire chart to be swung in a horizontal planeto different angles as may be most convenient for observation by theusers.

The printed title in the plates 3 represent the names of differentarticles to be operated upon and adapted to enter into the constructionof machines of a certain type, each using one or more of said articles.

The front portions of the guides 1 extend horizontally in the samedirection from their respective title plates 3 and terminate in the samevertical plane some distance from the fixed index Q depending somewhatupon the amount of work which may be conveniently and economicallycarried on in the plant, but more particularly upon the amount ofinformation which the chart is required to give as to the various stagesin the progress of the work.

For convenience of illustration of the operation of the chart I haveshown only three of the guides and a plurality of, in this instancelive, information strips cz b c c and (Z- in each guide, but it will beevident from the following description, that the number of guides andalso the number of strips in each guide may be varied according to theinformation required.

The strips c O c and CZ are preferably ade in the form of thin flattapes of flexible card board or equivalent material in differentcontrasting colors so as to be readily distinguishable one from another,and are relatively adjustable or slidable endwise in their respectiveguides by hand, or at will, so as to vary the distances betweencorresponding ends at the front and thereby to indicate, by comparisonof the exposed lengths, the condition of the work upon the articlescorresponding to the title of any particular guide 1 The innermost tapes--a are preferably secured by an adhesive, or otherwise, to the frontfaces of their respective guides and are provided with similar scales ornumbered graduations gradually increasing in value from left to rightwhile the remaining tapes ZJ e and M are provided with scales ornumbered graduations grads' ually increasing in value from right toleft.

For example, assuming that the capacity of output of a factory for agiven period of time is 30,000 (more or less) machines of a certain typecomposed of, say three parts, such as a base, a left leg and a rightleg, all requiring some particular operation to enable them to beproperly assembled in the completed machine, then the innermost stripsare preferably graduated in this instance, in inches progressivelyincreasing the values of 1,000 from left to right and each division isdivided into tenths, each representing one hundred parts so that thegraduations will be numbered in sequence from left to right from 1,000to 30,000 (29,000 being visible) with the ends of the innermost tapesrepresenting the last named figure and vertically alined with eachother.

The remaining tapes Z) O and (Z represent similarly graduated andnumbered strips from right to left with the right hand end of eachrepresenting the lowest number.

One of the duties of the production manager is to see that a sufficientnumber of parts are in stock and on order for the completion of acertain number of machines in a given time and in going over the stockor raw materials on hand, he finds that he actually has on hand 8,000 ofthe Base7 parts; 14,000 of the Lf Leg parts and 12,000 of the Rt Leg77parts of which 4,000 of the Base parts, Z1,000 of the Lf Leg partsantcll 3,500 of the Rt Leg parts are due on orer.

n n g This condition of the stock or raw mal terials would be shown onthe chart by adjusting the strips or tapes Z of the upper, intermediateand vlower guides 1-- endwise to the left to register their right handends with the 8,000; 14,000 and 12,000 graduations on said guidesrespectively, while the tapes or strips c of the saine guides would beadjusted endwise to the left to bring their right hand ends intoregistration with the graduations numbered 7jof the lower intermediateand upper Cil guides respectively to indicate that Vof the 8,000 baseparts 14,000 Lf Leg parts and 12,000 Rt Leg parts in stock and 'onorder, 4,000 of the Base parts; 4,000 of the Lf Leg parts and l3,500 ofthe Rt Leg7 parts are still due on order and that the actual number ofeach of those parts on hand upon which work can be immediately begunwill be the difference between what is shown to be on order and thetotal amount of stock ony hand and on order or, in this instance, 4,000of the Base parts; 10,000 of the Lt Leg parts and 8,500 of the Rt Legparte.

These parts which are actually on hand will therefore, be placed in thefactory to receive any operations thereon which may bev necessary in theprocess of manufacture and to enable them to be installed in theassembling room for completing the machine.

These operations are defined as under process7 of finishing and in orderto chart the numbers of articles or parts L.actually under process, thestrips or tapes -CZ- will be adjusted endwise to the left to registertheir ends with the numbers of those parts on the tapes orstrips -c.

For example, if 1,500 of the Base parts; 8,000 of the Lf Leg parts and7,500 ofthe Rt Leg parts have been placed under process of finishing,the right hand ends of the tapes l of the uppermost, intermediate andlower guides will be adjusted to register with the graduations number1,500; 8,000 and 7,500 of the underlying tapes -0-, respectively.

These adjustments of the. several strips -CZ- will cause certaingraduations thereon to register with the fixed index 4- and the numbersof Vthese graduations will indicate the number of each of the partsactually on hand and yet to be placed under process of completion ofcorresponding guides or as illustrated, 2,500; 2,000 and 1,500 on theuppermost, intermediate and lower strips CZ- respectively.

These numbers added to the readings on the strips ad of thecorresponding guides will give the actual number of parts on hand and inprocess of construction or the sums of the readings on the strips -Z-^,-c and -Z will correspond` to the readings on the strips +Le- In likemanner, any number of strips may be used in each guide to giveadditional information as to the progress of the work from the rawmaterial to the finished machine and by making the strips for each guideof contrasting colors enables the production manager and others to seeat a glance the relative progress of the work on any particular part bycomparing the eX- osed lengths of the strips, one with anotherirrespective of the reading of the graduations, which is intended to,give an accurate account ofthe number of parts ineach progressive stageof manufacture, fromf the quantity in stock `and on order-t0 thefinished machines, which latter would be indicated by the registrationof the right hand ends While Figure 1 shows only four exposed strips-ct-, -Z c and -cZ-in each of the guides -1--, each guide actuallycontains live strips, an extra strip as .-02- making five in all foreach section as shown in Figures 2 and 3, but the right hand ends of thestrips or tapes -care concealed by the superposed strips -cin that itsright hand end is registered with that of the last named strip.

This extra strip -cmay be used for other purposes than shown, asforeXample to indicate one of the steps in the process of manufacture ofeach of the parts.

By the use of a chart of this' character, the n production man-agerorany otherperson interested, may readily determine the various stages ofmanufacture of any one of the parts and also whether the departmentoperating upon quantity of any one of the parts is keeping pace with theprogress of manufacturing of a quantity of any *one of the other partsin some other department and if not, the fault or delay may be quicklyremedied either by supplying the necessary parts for manufacture or byspeeding the operatives in the delayed departmentall of whichcontributes greatly to the harmonious operation of the severaldepartments operating upon different parts and assures the supply of thefinished parts necessary to keep the assembling room in harmoniousoperation and full capacity production.

I claim:

1. A progress chart comprising a plurality of strips relativelyadjustable endwise at will one over the other to vary the distancebetween corresponding ends of the strips and thereby tol indicateprogressive stages of a working process, the rearmost strip and itsoverlying strip being provided with reversely arranged lengthwisescales.

2. A progress chart comprising a plurality of strips relativelyadjustable endwise at will one over the other to vary the distancebetween corresponding ends of the strips and thereby to indicateprogressive stages of a working process, each strip being provided witha lengthwise scale, and a iXed index for cooperating with the outermostscale.

3. A progress chart comprising a guide, and a plurality of stripsrelatively adjustable endwise at will one over the other in said guideand each provided with a lengthwise scale, the innermost strip beingiXed to said guide, and a fixed index. cooperating with the outermostscale,

eL. A progress chart Comprising-a plurality strip for indicating theprogressive stages of parallel guides designated by distinct but of Workunder the title of the corresponding related titles, each guidecontaining a pluguide. 10 rality of strips relatively adjustable endlnWitness whereof I have hereunto set Wise therein toward and from one endtheremy hand this lst davy of December 1923. of and each strip graduatedlengthwise to cooperate With one end of the next adjacent RAYMOND Gr.RECH.

